Ronnie O'Sullivan put in a fantastic 17 days at The Crucible to prove that he is still levels above the other top players in the game, as he came back from a year off to scoop his 5th Crucible crown. It's fair to say that the standard in the tournament was pretty low, especially in comparison to O'Sullivan who was only really tested on 2 occasions. When he was tested, he would just put in a spell of sublime break building and go further clear of his opponent. This is exactly what he did in the second round against Ali Carter who managed to draw level with him at 7-7, and then just watched as the Rocket fired in 2 quality breaks to take out a 9-7 lead going into their final session.
Then in the final, Barry Hawkins got an early 3-2 lead and looked like he may lead after the first session. Then all of a sudden Ronnie went through the gears taking all of the final 3 frames of the session to secure his own 5-3 lead. He was tested again by Hawkins as the pair were tied at 7-7 with 3 frames left of the second session. O'Sullivan found a period of spell-binding snooker knocking in 2 centuries and taking an important final frame on the black to secure a 10-7 lead going into the second day. Hawkins couldn't get as close again and was eventually beaten 18-12.
Much credit has to go to Barry Hawkins who has had by far his best season on the baize, winning his first ranking event and then making the World final. Before these Championships Hawkins had never made it further than the second round, and the snooker he produced was some of the best he has ever in his career. He took out up and coming Jack Lisowski in the first round who many thought would beat Barry. The Australian open champion then took out World No.1 Mark Selby, and another hot favourite Ding Junhui to reach the one table set-up for the first time. Here he found himself in big trouble underperforming and 12-8 down to Ricky Walden. 8 frames later, Hawkins had taken the lot and now led 16-12, one away from the Final, eventually getting over the line 17-14.
This World Championships were meant to be a big advert for snooker, the most open Championships yet and the standard supposedly never higher. Once again though we saw six elite Top 16 players knocked out in the opening round and 4 former World Champions. The truth is the standard was poor from many of the players except from Ronnie. As for it being the most open yet, most people were 99% sure O'Sullivan be World Champion before he broke off in his quarter-final.
Why such a poor standard. Burnout? Rubbish. If players are so tired from playing so much snooker, and travelling to China 5 times a season at least, then they should plan their season or as Shaun Murphy and Barry Hearn suggested - try being the man on the street. The fact is the players aren't really used to playing snooker every week yet and the travelling has increased this season, but why use that as an excuse when you have 3 weeks to prepare for the World Championships. Physically snooker takes very little out of any professional, but mentally it is a very gruelling sport. The truth is that many more players will be preparing their seasons better in preparation for the World Championships, and planning their calendars much better if they wish to succeed in Sheffield in 2014.
Out of the six Crucible debutants, 2 of them managed to make it past the first round. They were Michael White - who beat fellow Welshmen Mark Williams in the first round- and Dechawat Poomjaeng who entertained us all in his victory against Stephen Maguire. Dechawat was a breath of fresh air at the World Championships and was described by Maguire as "not a full shilling". The Thai player applauded his own good shots, waved to the crowd when going back to his seat and wore his heart on his sleeve. Michael White though, showed us some of his talents that will surely see him into the top 16 within 2-3 years. The youngster got through to the quarter-finals, winning his second round match with Poomjaeng with a session to spare 13-3. Even though he struggled a bit in the quarters this run will give him a heap of confidence, especially to beat someone he would have grown up watching in Mark Williams.
Surely the match of the tournament was the quarter-final between Judd Trump and Shaun Murphy that sent us all the way to a magnificent decider. Judd Trump was well below par in the first session, as Murphy capitalised with top breaks of 61, 68,76 and 82 in the opening 8 frames to open up a 6-2 lead. When Murphy took the first of the next session with a good 91, opening up a 7-2 lead, it wasn't looking good for Trump. An 8-3 lead was looking even more commanding and it was still looking great for Murphy at the interval with an 8-4 advantage. However, that turned out to be the start of Trump winning 5 frames in a row to level at 8-8 after the second session, the highlight a 118 from Trump in frame 14. The final session was of by far the best quality, both men were at the races this time and neither deserving to lose. After Trump won the first to go 9-8 ahead, Murphy found his form with a 128 break making it 9-9. When Trump missed a simple red in the next frame on 59, Murphy made a great 70 clearance under pressure to move 10-9 up. Judd put that behind him immediately, making 77 to square the match again at 10-10 at mid-session with 5 frames to go. Trump stole the next after a 62 break from Murphy to take a 11-10 advantage, but as the match swung again, the 2005 champion won a crucial 22nd frame on the black to level again at 11-11. A Murphy fist pump after winning that frame told us what it meant for him to win this match. A fabulous break of 90 put Judd Trump 12-11 ahead and one frame away from his second world championship semi-final as the excellent standard of the final session continued. Many people who watched this would agree that the match definetly deserved a decider and Shaun Murphy delivered under pressure to give the viewers what this match warranted from the outset of the final session. A high pressured break of 88 making it 12 all. The decider was the longest frame of the match lasting nearly an hour, but the action was so gripping and tense that felt like only 15 minutes. Murphy played a series of incredible long reds but each seemed to leave him on tough colours which he continued to refuse. However, Trump played a fantastic decider and in the end deserved the 13-12 victory after taking on the more attacking shots. The match was by far the best of the tournament and also one of the best of the season. Both players showed off great break-building skill, especially under pressure and it was a close tussle in the final session, with neither deserving to lose in such a tense encounter summing up what the World Championship is all about.
Ronnie O'Sullivan was by far the best player over the 17 days with no-one able to get close to his all-round. Of course his achievement was doubled by only playing 1 match all season since his win in 2012. It's hard enough to defend the World Championship without having a year off, outlining the pure genius of O'Sullivan.
It wasn't the best tournament in the Championships history but there were still some fun and classic moments and some matches and sessions of pure quality. I look forward greatly to next season and will look at the calendar shortly. Until then enjoy the 2 weeks we have off of the "close season". Not forgetting that we have Q School to enjoy and good luck to everyone chasing their dream of getting on the Pro Snooker tour.
